How to...

A nice surrealism tutorial.

Claymation~!

An adorable claymation from my childhood.

Such a pretty, tantalizing ligh--

My new favourite fish... Image not by me, though, it is royalty free. I'm only uploading this image temporarily so I can use it from computer to computer.

Don't mind me... ^^;

Animation before the lightbulb...

The Phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer")

The website, Exhibit of Optical Toys, Is a website run by Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman. It is an entire collection of pre-20th century optical and illusionary devices and toys. On the 'home' page, there are links to the gallery, archives, 'about', art, etcetera.

The overall layout of the page is fairly simple and plain. There isn't much colour, or anything much to distract from the white background. However, I do feel that that this does add a certain professional charm... and that without any colour used in the background, my eye was automatically drawn to the few sections of colour that there were; the illusion gallery which the author provided. Though it is not the most professional or effective tactic, it was still somewhat successful in directing my eye.


After looking through the many links of different optical toys, I had finally decided on one that I liked. I chose the phenakistoscope, )also known as the spindle viewer. It was first introduced in 1832, by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons. The phenakistoscope uses the persistence of motion to create the illusion of motion. The phenakistoscope consisted of two discs mounted on the same axis. It was quite successful for two years, until William George Horner invented the zoetrope, which could be viewed by more than one person at a time and did not require a viewing mirror. I chose this toy over the others, because it actually reminded me of a toy I had myself, at one point in time. I thought it would be interesting to read a bit up on it, and to understand the mechanics.

And now, for my next trick...

Final act?

This is the practice surrealism piece I had done in order to get a feel for the program, before venturing into the real project. In this piece, I made a portrayal of a hand that appears to be reaching out of a top hat. (Which would, of corse, be impossible in real life.) I started by simply thinking to myself, "Top hat plus hand equals possible surrealist assignment...?" With some previous experience in mixing images in Photoshop and PaintToolSAI, I already had an idea of how I was going to mix and match each image, and what ever else I could draw in. Afterwards, I began searching google for the image of a top hat facing forwards. (A direction that would be able to properly show the hand peering through.) And then the image of a hand that would be facing outward, so that the palm clearly shows as a focal point. after getting two photos I thought to be compatible, I slightly cropped the hand, and moved it into place. Next, I selected the entire image as a whole and selected the 'Black and White' option. Unfortunately, the bottom of the hand had been missing, as it wasn't in the image to begin with. I created a new layer and selected black as a colour and the brush tool on the feather setting. From there, I filled in the centre of the hat and the areas around the hand as well. After a few more slight adjustments, I had finished, and the image above was the end result. Pretty good for a beginner, such as myself, I think.

Edgar Müller, My Prezi~ xD

The My (Surrealist Chalk Paint) Hero :DD

Link? ^^

My Chess Piece~

For my chess piece, I had used many different strategies and resources in order to achieve a realistic effect of lighting, shadow, and proportion. This was a process that took over the course of about a week and a few days. First, I needed to get a sense of where the center of the page was by dividing the page into two sections down the middle with a ruler. Next, I very lightly etched the outline of the chess piece in front of me, (I had been using a model reference of an actual chess piece.) but had left the section where the glasses were to break in front of the glasses blank, as I would be sketching in that part later to get a better sense of proportion. I had borrowed the glasses of a friend and placed them in front of the chess piece in order to get the distorted effect from the near-sighted lenses. That was a large part of my goal for this project.

I managed to create a 3D effect by stepping outside of my comfort barrier in sketching, and using darker shades. Normally, I would fear using dark shades as there is always a possibility I could mess up and not be able to go back. However, after a while I began getting used to it and using different shades more naturally while blending and creating a base. Had I used my regular colour scheme, (With lighter colours,) The initial POP of the chess piece would be much more difficult to see.

I used balance in this sketch with symmetry on each side of the glasses and chess piece. The shading meets in the middle, and is almost a reflection of itself on either side. This looks balanced because nothing really changes much except when your eye is led to the background. This is where I used the very darkest shades, which I personally think contrast nicely with the lighter shades on the chess piece. For the background, I had chosen to use "pattern," as the chess piece is fairly complicated on it's own. Had I chosen anything else, (Such as movement, perhaps,) It may have began overpowering the chess piece and become much less pleasing to the eye.